PG Heavily Armed Pedigree chart

In The Blood: PG Heavily Armed

James Payne aboard PG Heavily Armed
PG Heavily Armed & James Payne • Photo by Dawn Baxstrom

A summer highlight for PG Heavily Armed and Equi-Stat Elite $3 Million Rider James Payne has to be their win in the Metallic Cat National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) Summer Spectacular Classic/Challenge Open, where they marked a 229. Then they reinforced their good summer with a Mercuria/ NCHA World Series of Cutting Open Championship at the West Texas Futurity after marking a 226. Now that summer is officially over, they have had a productive fall season, with a 227 score for the win in the Brazos Bash Classic/Challenge Open and a 221 for the Classic/Challenge Open Reserve title at the Southern Futurity.

PG Heavily Armed (Playgun x Not Quite An Acre x Bob Acre Doc) is a 2012 bay stallion owned by Michael and Brenda Armstrong, of Marietta, Oklahoma, and bred by Dick Pieper. His winnings this year have brought his earnings past the $200,000 milestone. A look at the pedigree of PG Heavily Armed will bring together a unique blend of Doc Bar and the King Ranch bloodlines of Old Sorrel.

SIRE LINE

Playgun Heavily Armed's sire
Playgun • Photo by John Brasseaux

Playgun (Freckles Playboy x Miss Silver Pistol x Doc’s Hickory) is best remembered for his double win at the 1996 Augusta Futurity, where he topped the Open and Non-Pro divisions. But, he went on to place in multiple events that year with wins in the Bonanza Derby Non-Pro and Steamboat Springs Derby Open. He was the 1998 El Cid Classic Open Champion, as well. He earned more than $185,000.

The sire record for Playgun shows that he is the sire of horses that have won greater than $9.2 million – mostly in cutting, reining and reined cow horse. His money-winners include Watch Me Whip ($186,392), the first horse to earn the NCHA Non-Pro Triple Crown; PG Dry Fire ($142,605), the 2006 World’s Greatest Horseman Reserve Champion; and Julgun ($105,860), the 2010 National Reining Breeders Classic Level 3 Open Champion.

Freckles Playboy (Jewel’s Leo Bars x Gay Jay x Rey Jay) was the 1976 NCHA Futurity Open Reserve Champion and the 1977 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Junior Cutting World Champion. He has sired foals with Equi-Stat records of more than $28 million in cutting, $302,823 in reined cow horse, $137,368 in reining and nearly $177,000 from the AQHA World Show. His leading money-winners include Playboys Madera ($570,819), the 1988 NCHA Non-Pro World Champion; Playboys Kid ($445,018), the 1986 NCHA Non-Pro World Champion; and Hyglo Freckles ($412,141), the 1988 NCHA Open World Champion.

Gay Jay was an NCHA money-winner who earned her Certificate of Ability. When mated with Jewel’s Leo Bars (Sugar Bars x Leo Pan x Leo), she was the dam of Freckles Hustler ($86,397) and Jay Freckles ($43,168), the 1976 NCHA Open Reserve World Champion.

Rey Jay was a King Ranch-bred stallion by Rey Del Rancho (Ranchero x Panda De La Tordia x Ranchero). Rey Jay was out of Calandria K, by Tino, by Old Sorrel. Georgia Cody was the dam of Gay Jay, and she was sired by Sorghum Bill, by Bill Cody, by Wimpy P-1. Wimpy P-1 was sired by Solis, by Old Sorrel.

Miss Silver Pistol headshot
Miss Silver Pistol • Photo by Susan Ferguson

Miss Silver Pistol (Doc’s Hickory x Pistol Lady 2 Be x King’s Pistol) was the 1985 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Champion and the 1986 NCHA Breeders Cutting 4-Year-Old Open Co-Champion. She earned $512,755. Her Equi-Stat record shows that she has produced money-earners of $475,943. Her No. 2 money-winner is Silver Pepto Pistol ($117,799), a multiple aged-event winner including the Abilene Spectacular 4-Year-Old Amateur, the NCHA Super Stakes Amateur and the NCHA Summer Spectacular Amateur in 2007.

Doc’s Hickory (Doc Bar x Miss Chickasha x Chickasha Mike) is a leading sire of money-earners with Equi-Stat records of more than $21 million, as well as the paternal grandsire of the all-time leading sire of cutting horse money-winners – High Brow Cat. His second-leading money-winner is Hicapoo ($447,855), the 1994 NCHA Horse of the Year.

DAM LINE

Heavily Armed's Dam Not Quite An Acre
Not Quite An Acre & Curly Tully • Photo by Don Shugart

Not Quite An Acre (Bob Acre Doc x Doc Hickorys Gal x Doc’s Hickory) was a multiple aged-event finalist and NCHA top 10 Open finalist, including the 1997 NCHA Summer Spectacular Classic/Challenge Open Championship, just as her son was. She is the winner of $153,356. She was also the 1997 NCHA Horse of the Year.

The Equi-Stat produce record for Not Quite An Acre has her foals earning $429,548 in cutting, reined cow horse, ranch trail and heeling. Her leading performer in reined cow horse is Stylabob ($87,644), who is her No. 2 offspring overall. He was the 2005 National Stock Horse Association (NSHA) Futurity Open and Intermediate Open Champion.

Bob Acre Doc (Son Ofa Doc x Sapp’s Sandy x Sapp Head) was the 1991 NCHA Open World Champion and the 1994 NCHA Non-Pro World Champion. He earned $418,926, according to Equi-Stat. His sire record shows earnings of nearly $10.5 million. Some of his top money-winners are Autumn Acre ($365,927); Bobs Smokin Joe ($281,235), the 1993 NCHA Futurity Open Champion; and Peponitas Acre ($272,986), the 1996 NCHA Futurity Non-Pro Champion.

The daughters of Bob Acre Doc have made him a leading broodmare sire with earnings of $9.7 million. His leading performer through his daughters is Widows Intentions ($353,065), the 2006 NCHA Super Stakes Classic Open Champion.

Doc Hickorys Gal was the 1984 Texas Classic 4-Year-Old Open Co-Champion. She earned $49,386. This mare is the dam of horses that have won $487,527, including her leading winner, Little Hickory Gal ($181,190), who was the 1992 Augusta Futurity 4-Year-Old Non-Pro Champion.

This brings us back to her sire – Doc’s Hickory. He is not only a leading sire but also a prominent sire of broodmares, with maternal grandsire earnings of more than $33.4 million. The leading performer from this category is Meradas Little Sue ($730,552), the 1995, 1997 and 1999 NCHA Open World Champion.

This cross of Doc’s Hickory gives PG Heavily Armed a breeding pattern of 3 X 3 to this stallion. This tells us that Doc’s Hickory is found in the third generation on the sire side and dam side of the pedigree of PG Heavily Armed.

The dam of Doc Hickorys Gal is Tachuelita (El Rey Rojo x Tachita Tres x Hiredhand’s Cardinal), an unshown King Ranch-bred mare. She is the dam of four horses that have won $87,569. Her second-leading money-winner, behind Doc Hickorys Gal, is Hickorys Devilita ($21,100), a finalist in the 1991 Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Association Futurity Open.

Tachuelita brings the King Ranch back into the pedigree with another cross to Rey Del Rancho. El Rey Rojo was sired by Rey Del Rancho, the sire of Rey Jay. When we step back, we see that Tachuelita was linebred to Old Sorrel just like Rey Jay, but let’s focus on the Rey Del Rancho connection.

Rey Del Rancho represents the linebreeding to the King Ranch blood found in both of these horses. We have a breeding pattern of 4 X 4 to Rey Del Rancho, as he appears in the pedigree of PG Heavily Armed on both the sire and dam side of the pedigree. Ranchero was sired by Solis, by Old Sorrel, the King Ranch foundation sire. It also gives us a linebreeding pattern to Doc’s Hickory and the King Ranch cross we see in this pedigree – a nick of Doc’s Hickory and the blood of the King Ranch, as it is found in the pedigree of PG Heavily Armed with an emphasis on Rey Del Rancho.